Scottish candidates raise thousands through election crowdfunders

Scottish general election candidates have raised more than £200,000 through crowdfunding sites, The Ferret can reveal.

Labour’s sole Scottish MP of the last parliament, Ian Murray, tops the crowdfunding league table having raised more than £8,655 from 84 donors to his site.

His Edinburgh South seat is likely to be a key election battleground.

However, it is the SNP who have proven most able to harness the power of crowdfunding sites to their advantage.

In Scotland, 16 of the top 20, highest grossing crowdfunders are SNP candidates.

There are some high profile names among the SNP candidates who have received large amounts of cash through crowdfunding.

They include former first minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond, who has raised £5,425 from 86 donors, Mhairi Black, who has raised £7,980 towards retaining her Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat, and Deputy Leader for Moray, Angus Robertson, who has raised £7,520 from donors keen to see him hold his seat against a challenge from the Conservatives.

Although the Scottish Green Party is only fielding candidates in three Scottish constituencies, Co-leader and Glasgow MSP Partick Harvie is also among the candidates to benefit from crowd-funding. He’s raised more than £7,000 towards his election battle in Glasgow North from 276 donors. This tally is more than his SNP and Labour rivals for the seat have raised.

According to research undertaken by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the SNP has raised more cash using this method than any other UK political party in the 2017 general election campaign. They have calculated that SNP candidates have collectively raised more than £159,000 so far.

The SNP have collectively raised more crowdfunder cash than Labour Party candidates, who have raised just over £85,000 across 68 appeals throughout the UK.

In Scotland, the chart below shows the income the parties have pulled in from crowdfunder sites. The Shetland and Orkney Sovereignty party have used their crowdfunder to raise more than £2000 towards their campaign. The Scottish Conservatives had raised just £190 from crowdfunding.

Election rules require political parties to verify the name and address of all donors who give more than £50.

The Ferret has contacted the SNP, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Green Party for comment.